A peaceful existence...NOT!

It seems to be the norm for me to only get in one loooong post about once a month telling you everything that's been happening in my life... time just does not seem to be on my side to post any more than that!

On the creative side, I've got a few things on the go that are keeping me occupied... firstly, it may be summer, but Christmas is right around the corner, and that's so evident in many quilt/fabric shops... the Christmas fabric is arriving... and while I didn't get everything I had ordered, I did get in a few pieces... and one design is for some adorable Christmas stockings which I've put together... there were four designs, but a visiting family member saw them and "popped" one off me, so I've only got three to show you, the one that I gave away had more yellow in it...


I love pink and yellow together... one day at the shoppe I decided to randomly cut a few pieces of fabric, and put them together with no set design nor measurements - I just needed to be stitching... I pieced together this... now I'll have to find time to quilt it...



I love the raspberry colour...


On the home front, it has been pretty crazy around here... about three weeks ago we had a storm that we've never experienced before... let me put this into perspective though... what appeared to be devastation to us, was merely more of an inconvenience, we could never imagine what people who live through tornadoes and hurricanes deal with, we are so very fortunate here...

We had a storm in the area which damaged many trees, damaged a few pieces of property and vehicles, and caused a loss of power, but it was nothing when you put it into the big picture as mentioned above.



For us, we lost power for 37 hours...

... we lit the lanterns...

...our small boat upturned on our canoe, with no damage to either...


...trees fell between most buildings without causing real damage, but several outbuildings received damage from fallen trees, and the fence in my horse's field needs to be mended in several spots.



... one of the tarped buildings with a huge tree on it, a wood structure building has a huge tree on it that smashed the roof, but I couldn't get a good picture of it...


My husband figures we have well over 100 trees (possibly up to 200) in and surrounding our property (on all our walking trails), that will need to be cut, but we will be at it for months if we ever even get it all cleaned up at all... we will have enough firewood to last for over 10 years if we can get it cut up before it rots...



At the same time, we've had a family wedding, numerous family members in for the summer and more to come (can't wait, sis, woo hoo!!!), and our daughter is heading off to college and my husband will be taking furniture to her new residence (and 11 hour drive away if you don't stop), so it's tough to get any of that kind of work done - especially with me away all day, and all of the rain we have had recently...


And for those of you who know me closely, you will know that I do wildlife rehabilitation, and this summer I've had a few calls regarding that, so when the call comes, I do my best to deal with it as soon as possible... I can't take in every animal because I don't get paid to do this, so I can only take in the ones that have a good success of survival (mostly orphans); I am only a volunteer (legally permitted by the province), and every cost comes out of my pocket, this includes, food, shelters, vet bills (unless we can get the animal to the vet college 6 hours away), cleaning materials, kennels, rescue equipment, and well, the list goes on... that's why I work, to pay for this, and it's not cheap... but to me, the animals are worth it, it is my small part in giving back to the earth... this lifestyle (it is a lifestyle and not a hobby) I have chosen, is the calming force in my hectic life, the recipe that soothes my soul, the light in my darkest days, and the activity that keeps me healthy... next to my health, my family, and my pets, this is the next most important thing in my life! In most cases with few exceptions, nothing will take precedence over these four things...


In this regard, a new enclosure I was setting up and that I desperately needed this year, was damaged... it took us a whole afternoon and evening just to de-limb the tree that fell on it, and drag the branches to the brush pile, that doesn't even include bucking up the tree which was one of the biggest we had here and it was not even rotten from ants...


It will be a while before things slow down around here, I've got a ton of ideas in my head for the shoppe... I've created a crewel work design that my Mum has nabbed off me to play with even before I've had a chance to work on it (along with a couple of designs ;-) )



I'm helping out a lady who wants to create a special gift for a special couple, I've dug in to my personal stash to help out two customers, and I'm working on a small consignment item for an old acquaintance who I had made something for over 25 years ago, she has asked me to make one as a gift to a special friend of hers who is expecting her first baby, it's been a while and challenging because I don't have everything I need, but I'm working on it... so, there's lots happening behind the scenes...

.... and on a personal uplifting note, a lady and her grown daughter visited my shoppe one day this week and then came back the next day to purchase some fabric... the mother told me that they had had to go home and think about the fabric before buying, but did return to purchase something. The daughter told me that she was very impressed with my fabric and my shoppe, and her mother piped in and said "and my daughter is from Edmonton" (ie. booming large city with many shops), but the daughter told me she had never seen any of my fabric anywhere... a small boost of encouragement that has been much needed.

On a humourous note, my hubby came to bed late one night (3 am), only to exclaim "I think there is a bat flying around the bedroom", so we closed the door and turned on the light and searched for it to no avail... I opened the door and stood in the dark to search the living room until I finally saw the bat land upon the wall and blend in like a knot in the wood... it took us until 5am when I finally caught the bat and released it outside.

If you've arrived at the end of this post, then I thank you for visiting and reading...

I'm often consumed by guilt for those blogger friends who have stuck by me and continue to visit and offer me words of encouragement, private emails to make sure I'm all right, and hanging in there between my posts.... thank you, thank you, thank you - I sure do appreciate it :-) (you all know who you are). I will have lots to show you and my posts will be more interesting on the creative side as things get back to normal and things settle into a peaceful existence, I just have to be patient and let it happen and ask you to bear with me.

Love, hope, and joy!

Heather